


The Day Has Come

by mggislife2789



Category: Criminal Minds, Spencer Reid - Fandom
Genre: Dyslexia, F/M, Reader-Insert
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-08
Updated: 2017-07-08
Packaged: 2018-11-29 15:35:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11443854
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mggislife2789/pseuds/mggislife2789
Summary: Disclaimer: I don't own any of these characters or their original stories. This is only for fun. It's where my brain goes after the credits roll. No copyright intended. Better safe than sorry. ;)





	The Day Has Come

“Dammit!” 

Spencer heard a women cry softly from across the room. The papers she was holding flew out of her hand as the tears flowed freely. When she noticed he’d seen her, she shielded her eyes from him and sobbed harder, embarrassed by her outburst. 

This bookstore was one of the few that was unbelievably quiet, so people tended to sit here when they needed time to think; he’d seen her here quite a few times. 

Getting up from his seat, he placed the book he was reading down on the table and crouched down to the floor to grab the papers she had thrown, putting them into a pile before returning them to her. “Thanks,” she said through tears. “I’m sorry if I disturbed you.”

“It’s not a problem,” he replied. When he glanced at the papers, he saw that they were reading exercises. “I’ve seen you in here a few times. Are you sure you’re okay?”

She winced a bit, the tears stinging her eyes as she spoke. “Physically, I’m fine. Emotionally not so much.” As she turned in her chair to face him, she stopped, not wanting to overshare with the man who’s name she didn’t know, but also looking as if she wanted him to ask her what was wrong so she could unload. 

“You can tell me,” he said softly. He sat across from her and hoped she would tell him. He wanted to know why she was always alone and sad. “If you want to, that is. I’m Spencer by the way.”

“I’m Y/N,” she replied. “I…I’m dyslexic. I was able to make it through my GED with a lot of help, but I’ve been trying to learn to read better..and I just can’t. I feel like there are a thousand worlds I’m not able to experience and it pisses me off.” She looked longingly toward the bookshelf, wondering what it would be like to dive within those pages. Spencer couldn’t imagine not being able to escape within the musty pages of the books he loved so much, so instantly, he felt bad for her. “I’m okay with listening and speaking, it’s reading and writing that I suck at. When people read to me, I love it. I just wish I was able to do it myself.”

The idea of not being able to read broke Spencer’s heart, so before he even realized it came out of his mouth, he spoke. “I could help you,” he said. “I’m not actually a teacher, but I read a lot.”

“Why would you want to help me?” she asked. “You don’t even know me.”

That was true. “But I love to read and the idea of you not being able to when you want to so badly makes me want to help. I’m not always around. My job takes me away a lot, but I could come up with some exercises and we could meet here when I’m home. When I’m not, I could give you exercises to do yourself.”

Y/N smiled up, the tears this time being ones of gratitude rather than sadness. “I’d like that. If you wouldn’t mind. Thank you, Spencer.”

—-

Thankfully, work had Spencer close to home more often than not over the course of the past few months. Immediately after meeting Y/N that day, he’d gone home and developed a little reading curriculum for her. Decoding unfamiliar words was an enormous problem for those with dyslexia, so that’s what he wanted to work on first. 

At first, she’d been very shy with him, embarrassed that she was in her 20′s and couldn’t read beyond a late elementary school level. She was especially embarrassed because she could listen to the most complex of sentences and know what they meant, but reading it was nearly impossible. “We’re going to start with this phonics chart first,” he said, handing her a bunch of papers with pictures and letters on them. “Each line has a sound in the English language and how many different ways letters can be put together to make that sound. Some have a lot, others don’t.” 

For those first couple of lessons, he’d had to calm her down - the sheer amount of letters and sounds overwhelming her. “English is hard,” he said. “Ask any speaker of another language and they’ll tell you how hard it is to learn. Hell, even native English speakers sometimes don’t read correctly because there are so many combinations of letters that sound the same or mean the same thing. It’s not easy, so try and give yourself a break.”

After that, things had been a little easier. Each time they were together, he would help her drill that phonics alphabet code into her. Once he felt that she had a good grip on that, they started to work on eye-tracking, the ability to read from left to right in a fluid motion and have the brain work with the eyes at the same time. That had brought on another breakdown that left her crying in his arms. She’d been put down in school her entire life, so she was convinced she was stupid. “You are not dumb,” he said. He sat across from her and held the papers over everything but the word she was meant to read. “Take it slowly and over time, it will become easier.”

“Do you think I’ll ever be able to read Harry Potter?” she asked. “That was one of the things I’ve always wanted to read but couldn’t.”

Harry Potter was difficult, sometimes even for people that could read well, because of all the new words that didn’t exist until that point, but it definitely wasn’t impossible. “Yes,” he said with a smile. “If you want to read Harry Potter, eventually, I believe you’ll be able to.”

“I hope so,” she replied, swallowing the ever-present self doubt. “And Spencer? Thank you so much for teaching me. I’ve never met anyone who was so nice before. So not judgmental. Especially someone who is as smart as you are. It means a lot to me.”

At this point, they’d gotten close enough that they hugged when greeting and leaving each other, so he turned toward her and gave her a hug. “I promise, if it’s the last thing I do, I will have you reading Harry Potter eventually. We’ll read it together. You can read it to me. It’ll help with the eye-tracking.”

With a deep breath, a steadier one that indicated she held some hope, she said okay.

—-

It had taken nearly a year and a half of exercises, breakdowns, hard work and even more tears, but Spencer was confident that Y/N would be able to read the book she’d always wanted to read - however slowly she might read it. “Are you sure I can do this Spencer? I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle it if I start trying to read this and I can’t. It’ll crush me.”

He pulled her into his arms and hugged her tightly for a few moments. “Just take it slow, using the paper to help track like we’ve been doing and be patient with yourself. But yes, I’m sure. When you’re ready, go ahead and start.”

With shaky hands, she pulled up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone and opened up to the first page. She picked up a piece of paper he’d made numerous copies of that had a hole cut into it, so only one word could be seen at a time, but she could guide it across the paper. She’d normally use that paper to start out and as she got more confident, would just rest the paper underneath an entire sentence. 

Spencer couldn’t help but beam with pride as she started. “Mis-ter and Mrs. Dursley…of number four, is that private with a long I or does it have a short I?”

“Short,” he answered with a smile. “Privet Drive, were proud to say that they w-were perfectly normal, thank you very much.” She looked up at him, waiting for a nod of approval, which he gave. “They w-were the last people you’d, you would?, you’d ex-pect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they didn’t hold with such nonsense.” When she looked up this time, she started to cry. “I can read it Spencer. Kind of. It’s hard, but I can read it. Thank you.”

Spencer smiled. “I told you, you could do it.”


End file.
